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Sales prospecting: How to perfect your process

When it comes to sales, there’s no doubt that everyone has their own process. Some will attempt to copy the tricks that the famous faces in sales have used, while others might adopt their own.

However, before you get to the closing stages, you and your team generally have to overcome prospecting hurdles. This is a field which has been blessed with a lot of sales intelligence data over the years, but it’s still something which is a fine art and one that you must master if you are going to increase your overall numbers.

Taking this into account, let’s now take a look at some of the best tips you can implement when it comes to sales prospecting.

The art of warming up

A lot of people view sales prospecting as a completely cold process. In other words, the call to the prospect is out of the blue.

Suffice to say, this is quite a tough sell. Convincing someone randomly to purchase a product is a challenge, and one that even the best sales people in the world might struggle to overcome.

As such, increase your chances of success by warming them up beforehand. How do you do this? It can be as easy as reacting to something they have posted on social media (through their business account of course), or even just after being introduced by a mutual acquaintance.

Resist the urge to sell

This next piece of advice might be really tricky for some of you to follow. After all, prospecting is seen by some companies as a direct sales channel when in reality, it’s only the first step in the equation.

The problem with trying to sell at this point is that your prospects are pretty cold. You don’t have a relationship built with them, and at the moment they’re not really a qualified lead.

As such, if you try to sell too quickly, they will be immediately turned off. If you instead wait, and build that elusive relationship, you’ll find that the chances of converting later down the line are much higher.

Only reference a script

The R-word is crucial here. If you stick rigidly to a script, you’re probably destined to underperform. Your pitch will sound forced, and you’ll struggle to build a relationship with your prospects.

However, if you can just reference a script, and hop in and out of it from time to time, you’ll find that you have much more flexibility within your pitch.

Become an industry leader

This final point is most definitely easier said than done, but if you can make a name for yourself in an industry these calls also become much easier. “Making a name for yourself” doesn’t have to translate to being a celebrity either, you can simply contribute to publications in your industry, or even give talks, and your name will gradually start to spread.

If your leads can be familiar with you, it’s amazing how much more they will listen.